Abstract:
This GRID represents the top quarter of overall habitat values, within each of 4 general cover types (saline, freshwater, forest, grass/shrub/bare ground) in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Maine watershed. Habitat values were derived for 91 priority trust species of the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service. Habitats for each species were mapped and ranked from actual sightings or by developing habitat suitability models reflecting environmental requirements for each species. Scores for each species were then added to derive the sum of scores for all species combined. The value for each cell reflects both the number of species using each cell and the relative habitat suitability for those species.

Metadata elements shown with blue text are defined in the
Federal Geographic Data Committee's (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM).
Elements shown with green
text are defined in the ESRI Profile of the CSDGM.
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Identification Information:

Citation:

Citation information:

Originators:
Bob Houston

Title:

Gulf of Maine Habitats - Top Quarter of Habitat

*File or table name:
gomtopqrter91

Publication date:
13 May 2003

*Geospatial data presentation form:
raster digital data

Publication information:

Publication place:
Falmouth, Maine, USA

Publisher:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gulf of Maine Coastal Program

Publisher:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gulf of Maine Coastal Program

Other citation details:

General information about the project: http://gulfofmaine.fws.gov/gomanalysis/gomanalysis.html or detailed report at: http://r5gomp.fws.gov/gom/habitatstudy/Gulf_of_Maine_Watershed_Habitat_Analysis.htm

This GRID represents the top quarter of overall habitat values, within each of 4 general cover types (saline, freshwater, forest, grass/shrub/bare ground) in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Maine watershed. Habitat values were derived for 91 priority trust species of the U.S. Fish Wildlife Service. Habitats for each species were mapped and ranked from actual sightings or by developing habitat suitability models reflecting environmental requirements for each species. Scores for each species were then added to derive the sum of scores for all species combined. The value for each cell reflects both the number of species using each cell and the relative habitat suitability for those species.

Purpose:

This data may be used to show valuable habitat for USFWS priority trust species in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Maine watershed. The data may be used at a regional or local level to prioritize habitat protection by local, municipal, state or federal land protection organizations or to support grant applications for habitat protection. It may also be incorporated into local and regional planning to help identify and protect important fish and wildlife habitat.

*Language of dataset:
en

Time period of content:

Time period information:

Range of dates/times:

Beginning date:
1984

Ending date:
2002

Currentness reference:

ground condition

Status:

Progress:
Complete

Maintenance and update frequency:
Irregular

Spatial domain:

Bounding coordinates:

West bounding coordinate:
-72.389190

East bounding coordinate:
-66.831715

North bounding coordinate:
47.460095

South bounding coordinate:
41.644551

Local bounding coordinates:

*Left bounding coordinate:
244324.916142

*Right bounding coordinate:
663484.916142

*Top bounding coordinate:
5256296.368135

*Bottom bounding coordinate:
4614866.368135

Keywords:

Theme:

Theme keywords:
fish, wildlife, habitat, trust species

Theme keyword thesaurus:
None

Place:

Place keywords:
Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New England, Gulf of Maine watershed

Access constraints:
None

Use constraints:

None

Point of contact:

Contact information:

Contact organization primary:

Contact organization:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gulf of Maine Coastal Program

The accuracy of the attributes is determined by the scale and quality of the data sets used, which may have errors in characterizing land cover, soil, or other environmental condition. Use of this data set at the local level (parcel or town level) should be supplemented by on-the-ground verification.

Logical consistency report:

This raster data set is based on descriptive models, applied to available GIS datasets.

Completeness report:

The coverage may omit useful habitat or erroneously identify habitat because of limitations of the source data and the models operating on those data. Habitat identification was limited by the spatial resolution of the underlying data and the quality and age of information available. The species may not be found in all the habitats shown, or may be found in additional areas; the information provided may not accurately portray most recent conditions. This data set only shows high value habitat for the species included in the analysis; important habitat may exist for other species not included in the analysis.

Positional accuracy:

Horizontal positional accuracy:

Horizontal positional accuracy report:

Data set accuracy generally corresponds to that of the 1:24,000 base data used to align the raster data.

Lineage:

Source information:

Source citation:

Citation information:

Originators:
Bob Houston

Title:

Gulf of Maine Habitat - Freshwater Habitats

Publication date:
13 May 2003

Geospatial data presentation form:
raster digital data

Publication information:

Publication place:
Falmouth, Maine, USA

Publisher:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gulf of Maine Coastal Program

Source is the numeric sum of values of habitat grids for 91 species, in saltwater areas.

Process step:

Process description:

The top quarter of habitat values from each of the 4 grids (freshtypes, foresttypes, grasstypes, salinetypes) were combined into a single grid.
The following steps were used to calculate the top quarter of the habitat values for each of those 4 grids. The value attribute table of each was exported to a spreadsheet, in which the 'value' field is ordered from lowest numbered record (top of column) to highest (bottom of column) records. Then: 1) Add a column in which to calculate the product of the 'value' field (which is habitat quality) times the 'count' field (number of cells at each value) - these products are 'habitat units'. 2) Sum the 'habitat units', and calculate what three quarters of this would be. 3) Make another column and in it cumulatively add the 'habitat units' from top to bottom. 4) By inspection, look down the column to find the 'value' at which the cumulative habitat unit number is at or above three quarters of the total (from step 2)). This grid value and higher values constitute that top quarter of habitats.